ABC vilified me, says ex-officer

Page Tools

A Four Corners television program portrayed a former
police officer involved in the jailing of Roseanne Catt as corrupt,
a "villain" and a "crook", the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The officer, Peter Thomas, became a private investigator who
frequently acted for insurance companies in arson cases after
leaving the police.

He is suing the ABC for defamation over the program about
insurance investigators who allegedly accused people of arson so
insurance companies do not have to pay out their claims.

Mr Thomas' barrister, Kieran Smark, told the court, the program,
which aired in October 2000, instead focused almost entirely on his
client.

"[The program's] theme, its thrust is that Peter Thomas is a
villain. He was a villain as a policeman and he was a villain as an
insurance investigator," Mr Smark said.

Mr Thomas is not suing over anything the program said about his
involvement in the case against Catt. Mr Smark said: "Roseanne Catt
was later convicted. That was Peter Thomas doing his job."

He asked the jury to find the program had defamed Mr Thomas in
several other ways.

The program had stated, he said, that Mr Thomas had fabricated
evidence as an insurance investigator in an attempt to defeat
insurance claims.

It also asserted Mr Thomas had offered money to prospective
witnesses to give evidence he knew to be false and was an
unscrupulous investigator.

The show also alleged, Mr Smark said, that as a police officer
Mr Thomas had assaulted a man, Errol Taylor, in a drunken rage and
had sought bribes from another man, Sid Bates.

Four Corners imputed Mr Thomas had agreed to destroy
evidence in a drug trial in return for a bribe, the court
heard.

While the ABC's barrister, Bret Walker, SC, admits the program
was "not praising" of Mr Thomas's record as a police officer, he
argued the imputations were not contained in the program. It
contained generalisations and overall impressions, but did not
convey the seven suggested imputations, he said.